Applications

Applications is a functional center of the device, which is designed to build user applications by adding components and linking them into a logical and mathematical sequences. Applications built with the nano EDGE ENGINE are cycle-driven, meaning the included components are executed in repeated periods of time lasting as long as a cycle time is set by the user—thanks to the efficiency of the nano EDGE ENGINE, the cycle may be as short as 100 ms (depending on the complexity of application), allowing effectively real-time calculations. With the nano EDGE ENGINE the user may freely add as many Application components to the Applications container as needed. The only considerations here are the number of available licensed Data Points, available memory, or cycle time. Data Points are main application components, representing values in applications and allowing to connect services from the Networks container with the application. Data Points may be exposed to external networks, which means that external exposition of data from the Applications container or any other space may be carried out only via the Data Point.

Applications

In order to build universal applications, the place of reference is the Applications container. The first step is to place the Application component in the Applications container (or as many of them as necessary–with the nano EDGE ENGINE it is possible to create more than one user application on the device, and all of the applications are cycle-driven and can work simultaneously). 

Once the Application component is added to the Applications container, it is ready to have the Data Points added, and the user application with complementary components can now be created. The components needed for this purpose are grouped in the Applications libraries.

The distinctive thing about the Data Points used in the applications is that they are BACnet and Modbus native–each Data Point contains built-in BACnet and Modbus extensions, which allow to automatically expose it as a BACnet object to the BACnet network and Modbus point to the Modbus network.

Using Equipment Folders

Using Equipment folders in applications is connected to tagging and Haystack functionalities.

Applying tags in the nano EDGE ENGINE is based on a semantic approach that ensures consistent data structure which is easily usable by the nanoWebUI™ and by third-party systems. Tags are applied at the Equipment and Data Point levels, where Equipment serves as the logical container defining what is being controlled, and Data Points represent the measured or commanded values associated with that equipment. This structured model ensures that tagged data is immediately usable by platforms capable of communicating through standardized tag-based HTTP APIs, e.g., Haystack.

Note: Tags can be only applied to the Equipment components and Data Points. Other component types are not supported.

It is therefore recommended (however, not mandatory) to use the following structure when creating applications:

• Applications container

  • Application component

    • Equipment component

      • Data Point(s)

      • other components

    • Equipment component

      • Data Point(s)

      • other components

Data Points

Data Points are universal components that represent a value in the application logic; they may serve as setpoints, sensors values, non-volatile variables, or any other data values. Data Points represent a layer of the application logic that is presented to an end user—this is where the end user is able to adjust desired setpoints (e.g., for air conditioning) or evoke other actions outlined in the application logic. Data Points also read values calculated in applications and control local or remote outputs.

Data Points in the application logic may work as regular writable variables with priorities, or—with Reference linking—they may be connected with network points, such as local I/O components.

Data Points are universal components that facilitate building application logics. They are adaptable by extensions, which expand their functionality by enabling them to be exposed to communication protocols. Among the fundamental extensions for Data Points are AnalogPriorities, BinaryPriorities, and MultistatePriorities—they add 16 priority input slots to Data Points, which allows to build logics based on using value significance priorities—a value given in the highest priority slot dismisses all values of lower priorities, which enables, for example, making sure that no emergency is omitted due to values of lower significance. Slots, which are not linked and have a value entered, save the value on a given priority.

The available Data Points:

• AnalogDataPoint with native BACnetAnalogPoint and ModbusAnalogPoint extensions;

• BinaryDataPoint with native BACnetBinaryPoint and ModbusBinaryPoint extensions;

• MultistateDataPoint with native BACnetMultistatePoint and ModbusMultistatePoint extensions.

In order to operate properly, Data Points must be placed in one of Application components in the Applications container. Only from this position, they may work properly included in the application logic.

Data Points and Network Points

Simply put, in the nano EDGE ENGINE, Data Points are value-carriers, and network points are communication-carriers. Data Points are always located in the Applications container (in individual Application components), and network points are always located in the Networks container (in the LocalIO component or BACnet/Modbus devices). The below table lists nano EDGE ENGINE component referred to as Data Point–and network point–class components:

Data Point– and network point– class components